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Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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A few thoughts from a worried fan

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  • A few thoughts from a worried fan

    If the Colts fail to make the playoffs or have another early exit from them, what are the odds Caldwell is gone? IMO I think Caldwell has been on the hot seat from the start. I think he is a mediocre coach at best with his success coming from the players/coordinators more than his own coaching ability. A lot of our success had come from the Moore-Meeks duo, and they are both COMPLETELY(Moore) gone now. I know our D has never been "awesome" but it did enough to get us by in the past. Dungy set the standard with this team and I don't think Caldwell can live up to the high expectations from the fans and the font office. To me it seems like he is just coasting along until his own dooms day. I know what this team can do with Peyton leading the way, but we need a coach to help do this also. I just have a feeling Caldwell will not be here this time next year. And honestly if we have a bad year this year (say 9 or less wins) it will be EXTREMELY hard for us to recover from that seeing how our roster is starting to age. I think we are a player or two removed from being a middle of the pack team in this league and its scary to say that with all of the success we have had with "OK" players on our team in the past.
    FOLLOW ME: @WarnerSays

    IU > Kentucky

    Biggest PHILLIES PHAN in Indiana

    “And as I go,I go with just a few words left to say,a few words I want to address to Colts fans everywhere, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I truly have enjoyed being your quarterback. Thank you.”
    - Peyton Manning

  • #2
    Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

    Originally posted by _The_Future_ View Post
    If the Colts fail to make the playoffs or have another early exit from them, what are the odds Caldwell is gone? IMO I think Caldwell has been on the hot seat from the start. I think he is a mediocre coach at best with his success coming from the players/coordinators more than his own coaching ability. A lot of our success had come from the Moore-Meeks duo, and they are both COMPLETELY(Moore) gone now. I know our D has never been "awesome" but it did enough to get us by in the past. Dungy set the standard with this team and I don't think Caldwell can live up to the high expectations from the fans and the font office. To me it seems like he is just coasting along until his own dooms day. I know what this team can do with Peyton leading the way, but we need a coach to help do this also. I just have a feeling Caldwell will not be here this time next year. And honestly if we have a bad year this year (say 9 or less wins) it will be EXTREMELY hard for us to recover from that seeing how our roster is starting to age. I think we are a player or two removed from being a middle of the pack team in this league and its scary to say that with all of the success we have had with "OK" players on our team in the past.
    I think Caldwell is very much so on the hot seat.

    I think he's a terrible pro coach. Heck, I doubt he'd even be a good college coach (His past history showed that he wasn't that great when he was at Wake Forest).

    He's nothing more than a product of Dungy and a "Nice Guy" which the Colts like.

    We should have/should still hire John Gruden.
    Stop quoting people I have on ignore!

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    • #3
      Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

      i think caldwell has done a fantastic job. i am not sure he isn't a better coach than dungy

      he'd have to stink it up severely for at least the next 2 seasons before the colts even contemplate letting him go
      Paddle faster, I hear banjos!

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      • #4
        Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

        Originally posted by Psyren View Post
        I think Caldwell is very much so on the hot seat.

        I think he's a terrible pro coach. Heck, I doubt he'd even be a good college coach (His past history showed that he wasn't that great when he was at Wake Forest).

        He's nothing more than a product of Dungy and a "Nice Guy" which the Colts like.

        We should have/should still hire John Gruden.
        I don't know about the Gruden part but the rest I agree.

        That being said even if we got rid of him who's to say their next choice is better. After all Polian still picks the coach.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

          then Jim Tressel takes over
          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

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          • #6
            Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

            He is on the hot seat, but if Peyton misses a significant amount of time, I don't think they would fire him because no Peyton means bad things, regardless who is the coach.

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            • #7
              Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

              To think the Colts will ever hire a prolific coach such as Gruden when Polian is around is pretty naive, unfortunately. It was somewhat obvious during the Dungy era and even moreso during the Caldwell era that Polian wants to have complete control of everything. We've basically got a Jerry Jones situation on our hands folks, possibly worse. If/when Caldwell is gone, it would actually not surprise me at all if we give a hard look at Wade Phillips.

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              • #8
                Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                Originally posted by riverside View Post
                i think caldwell has done a fantastic job. i am not sure he isn't a better coach than dungy

                he'd have to stink it up severely for at least the next 2 seasons before the colts even contemplate letting him go
                Did you miss the playoff game against the Jets last year? jesus...

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                  Caldwell is simply Polian's puppet. A YES man. And he has horrible in-game decisions.

                  Beyond that, I've never seen a bit of emotion from the guy - positive or negative. While I don't really care for the spit-spraying Cowher type, the comatose Caldwell type doesn't seem right for football. Something in the middle would be my preference.

                  And yes, If Manning misses significant time, that will just buy Caldwell another year or so.

                  Man ............. no NBA season, looks like a really bad football season .............. gonna be a loooooooooong fall and winter around here.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                    Originally posted by idioteque View Post
                    To think the Colts will ever hire a prolific coach such as Gruden when Polian is around is pretty naive, unfortunately. It was somewhat obvious during the Dungy era and even moreso during the Caldwell era that Polian wants to have complete control of everything. We've basically got a Jerry Jones situation on our hands folks, possibly worse. If/when Caldwell is gone, it would actually not surprise me at all if we give a hard look at Wade Phillips.
                    It would only be worse if we don't have a NFL legend at QB. However I see your point at least Jerry owns the team him being in control makes sense.

                    Polian doesn't even own the Colts but he's given that much power.

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                    • #11
                      Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                      I have very little if any confidence in Caldwell. I've not been fond of many decisions.

                      Of course emotion does not make a coach good, but Caldwell is comatose on the side lines. Some emotion IMO would be a good thing.
                      "Just look at the flowers ........ BANG" - Carol "The Walking Dead"

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                      • #12
                        Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                        Im fully convinced that Jim Caldwell could head the Colts over consecutive undefeated seasons and 90% of the fanbase would still want him fired yesterday.



                        I blame O'Brien for ruining it for guys named Jim to coach pro sports in Indianapolis.
                        "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                        "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

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                        • #13
                          Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                          Originally posted by Basketball Fan View Post
                          It would only be worse if we don't have a NFL legend at QB. However I see your point at least Jerry owns the team him being in control makes sense.

                          Polian doesn't even own the Colts but he's given that much power.
                          Honestly I think its Irsay and not Polain and the reason being is that I think Irsay believes strongly in promoting from within. He likes the cool calm coaches overall but its his loyality to people he knows and is comfortable with and have proven themselves in some capacity.

                          Irsay's loyalty to Bill now is reflected in Chris Polain in the same way he was loyal to Dungy and now Caldwell. Overall I think its going to take a lot for him to fire Caldwell and I would be surprised if he brought in a tough line coach. I sure don't see Chris Polain rocking the boat when he just got the keys either.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                            Originally posted by Sandman21 View Post
                            Im fully convinced that Jim Caldwell could head the Colts over consecutive undefeated seasons and 90% of the fanbase would still want him fired yesterday.



                            I blame O'Brien for ruining it for guys named Jim to coach pro sports in Indianapolis.
                            I take it you have forgotten Jim "Playoffs?!" Mora was the coach here before any of them...

                            Maybe the Colts need a coach in the Manning era not named Jim it worked out with Dungy and his name is Tony.

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                            • #15
                              Re: A few thoughts from a worried fan

                              Originally posted by Gamble1 View Post
                              Honestly I think its Irsay and not Polain and the reason being is that I think Irsay believes strongly in promoting from within. He likes the cool calm coaches overall but its his loyality to people he knows and is comfortable with and have proven themselves in some capacity.

                              Irsay's loyalty to Bill now is reflected in Chris Polain in the same way he was loyal to Dungy and now Caldwell. Overall I think its going to take a lot for him to fire Caldwell and I would be surprised if he brought in a tough line coach. I sure don't see Chris Polain rocking the boat when he just got the keys either.
                              Maybe but he had no problem firing Jim Mora but that's because Dungy was available.

                              And Mora was probably the last tough coach we had.

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